1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for lifting and guiding a plurality of panel elements on a building site of a building along an exterior wall of the building during a mounting operation of the panel elements, which apparatus vertically travels on the exterior wall of the building to serve as a lifting-guide unit for the panel elements in their mounting operation on the exterior wall of the building.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When exterior walls of buildings get old with their appearance deteriorated, panel elements are often mounted on the exterior walls of the buildings to renew their appearance.
Hitherto, when the panel elements are mounted on the exterior wall of the building to renew its appearance, a suitable scaffolding is put up around the exterior wall of the building to enable building workers to mount the panel elements on the exterior wall of the building.
On the other hand, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-30743 discloses a method for mounting a plurality of curtain wall units constituting a unit curtain wall on a building body.
In the method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-30743, a guide rail is formed in a longitudinal member of the curtain wall unit having been mounted on the building body to enable a lifting-guide unit to vertically travel on the guide rail. Then, a new curtain wall unit to be mounted on the building is connected to the lifting-guide unit, and lifted by the lifting-guide unit along the exterior wall of the building so as to be mounted on a desired portion of the exterior wall.
However, the method for mounting the panel elements on the exterior wall of the building by employing the scaffolding put up around the building is disadvantageous in that the building workers must conduct very cumbersome work to put up the scaffolding. In addition, there is a danger that the building workers may fall off of the scaffolding.
On the other hand, the method for mounting the panel elements on the exterior wall of the building according to the method for mounting the curtain wall units on the building body has disadvantages in that the guide rail must be formed on the building site. In addition, the panel elements employed in the method are restricted in shape to special ones to make it impossible to employ flat-shaped panel elements. Furthermore, since the panel element employed in the method is provided with the guide rail, the building covered with such panel elements is unattractive.